Framferði ástralsks sjókvíaeldisfyrirtæki hefur valdið miklu uppnámi þar í landi og kallað er eftir að það verði svipt starfsleyfi.
Vídeó, sem náttúruverndarsamtök tóku, sýna starfsmenn fyrirtækisins dæla lifandi eldislöxum í ker með dauðum laxi og innsigla svo kerin, sem hafa ýmist verið tæmd í landfyllingar eða komið í förgun í sorpvinnslustöðvum.
Tölur sýna að að það sem samsvarar yfir milljón fullvöxnum eldislöxum drápust í sjókvíum við Tasmaníu í febrúar. Í þeirri tölu eru ekki laxar sem drápust í öðrum mánuðum ársins. Mikill dauði hefur verið í sjókvíum við eyjuna vegna útbreiddrar bakteríusýkingar.
Ástandið hefur verið skelfilegt og rotnandi hold eldislaxa úr sjókvíum hefur rekið á land undanfarnar vikur.
Við Ísland drápust hátt í 900 þúsund eldislaxar í janúar. Dauðinn í sjókvíunum hér var líka hrikalegur í desember og nóvember.
Við trúum ekki öðru en að stjórnvöld taki nú í taumana. Þessi meðferð sjókvíaeldisfyrirtækjanna á eldisdýrunum er algjörlega óásættanleg. Það kemur ekki annað til greina en að taka af þeim leyfin og draga stjórnendur þeirra til ábyrgðar.
Verst hefur verið farið með eldislaxana af hálfu Kaldvíkur á Austfjörðum undanfarna mánuði.
Sjókvíaeldi á laxi er óboðleg aðferð við matvælaframleiðslu.
The Guardian fjallar um ástandið í Tasmaníu:
At least 1 million salmon died at Tasmanian fish farms and were dumped at landfill sites and rendering plants in February in what authorities and the industry described as an “unprecedented” mass death triggered by a bacterium outbreak.
The revelation that waste facilities in Tasmania’s south received more than 5,500 tonnes of dead salmon last month – equivalent to about 1.07 million full-grown Atlantic salmon, or 8% of total annual production in the state – followed weeks of reports of fatty chunks of fish washing up on beaches in the Huon Valley and on Bruny Island.
The figures do not include the number of salmon that died from the outbreak in earlier months.
Fresh questions about the treatment of salmon were raised on Thursday when environment organisation the Bob Brown Foundation released drone footage from above a salmon farm appearing to show workers pumping writhing live salmon into a tub carrying dead salmon and then sealing it. It sparked accusations of cruelty and calls for the RSPCA to stop certifying Huon Aquaculture.
On Saturday the RSPCA said in a statement it had suspended certification for 14 days while it investigated further, saying the “inhumane handling of live, sick or injured fish as shown in the video being circulated is completely unacceptable”.
…Authorities said the deaths were primarily caused by an endemic bacterium, Piscirickettsia salmonis, that had been found in Tasmania’s east and south-eastern coastal waters since at least 2021. They said the death rate was exacerbated by warm summer water temperatures.
…
Conservationists said the deaths at farms operated by Huon Aquaculture and Tassal showed that the state’s salmon farming industry was “an animal welfare nightmare”. It follows previous criticism from scientists and activists about the industry’s impact on the environment and particularly the endangered Maugean skate in Macquarie Harbour on the state’s west coast.
The Bob Brown Foundation campaigner Alistair Allan said the latest drone footage taken at a Huon Aquaculture farm in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, south of Hobart, that appeared to show live fish being placed and sealed in a dry tub with dead fish meant the RSPCA had “no choice but to drop their certification of this toxic and cruel industry”.
“This is the reality of factory-farmed salmon. Our waterways and beaches are covered with rotting chunks of diseased salmon, the Maugean skate has been pushed to the edge of extinction, reefs and sea floors are covered in sludge and slime, and communities are completely fed up with the corporate takeover of their waters,” he said.
The Neighbours of Fish Farming campaigner Jess Coughlan said: “Live animals suffering from disease that are left to suffocate to death absolutely should not earn the RSPCA badge that is displayed inshore alongside Huon Aquaculture farmed salmon.”
…